For those of you who don't know me (and there are gazillions) I'm Geoff Verdegast--politically incorrect social misfit, greasy-handed backyard mechanic, cranky eschewer of ubiquitous handheld communication devices, and half-starved author of the literary fantasy novel, OF STAVES AND SIGMAS. Okay, okay, I admit it--the line about being half-starved is a stretch; I worked a lot of years for the telecommunications industry, enough to allow me to retire at a relatively young age (too old for motocrossing or carving in the half-pipe, but perfect for tinkering on hot-rods and writing books). I'm also a pseudo-talented charcoal and scratch-board artist (see OSAS's original cover), an amateur photographer, and a self-trained hobo who specialises in aimless roadside wandering, sleeping under bridges, hopping freight trains, and stealing fresh-baked pies from window sills.
Looking back, I actually think it's fitting that I didn't produce my first novel until I started to creak open the doorway to my middle age. Although it's true that the fundamental ideas for what would become OF STAVES AND SIGMAS have been with me since my college days, I knew that I wasn't experientially equipped in those fledgling years to do them literary justice. In my twenties, and even through my thirties, I don't think that I--or my writing--had attained the maturity necessary for properly exploring and delineating the complexities of this story and its multi-faceted characters. Shelved, then, for a number of years, only when I felt sufficiently tempered by the triumphs and the hard knocks of life did I finally resurrect my earlier draft; and, finding the plot compelling and undiminished by time--and highly adaptable to my far more competent literary machinations--I have spun it into the rather lengthy tome that you can find on this site. Good stories, they say, are timeless.
I grew up reading 1960's Marvel Comics and Famous Monsters of Filmland, watching 1950's science fiction films, Frank Capra movies (I especially love Meet John Doe), pretty much anything from the early Hal Roach studios or the Three Stooges (I'm a long-standing Shemp-o-phile). Bookwise, I've always enjoyed the fiction of Richard Matheson (in all of his various literary, teleplay, and screenwriting pseudonyms) and the scientific and philosophical non-fiction of Isaac Asimov. I have also pretty much read the covers off of all eleven Edgar Rice Burroughs's "Mars" books (I dare say that ERB has truly been one of my greatest influences in choosing to write my own adventure novels). Homer's Odyssey, however, remains my favourite story ever; I find it not only a magnificent work of fiction, but to me it is the metaphoric mother lode for the entire human condition. Last, but never least, much of my general day-to-day silliness can be attributed to my family gene pool (and my being reared in that environment) with a little bit of help from the Three Stooges, the Monty Python fellows, and the brilliant Benny Hill, to name just a few.
Having lived in Europe for a few years in my youth, I was quickly instilled with an unquellable fondness for mediæval cities and ruins, for classical composers, for old mythology and lore, and for diverse cultures in general. And, of course, for British English. Stir all of these ingredients together, add a bachelor's degree in English, and you just might glean what it is that compels and drives my imagination. These concepts, and more, are what I inject into my writing.
Looking back, I actually think it's fitting that I didn't produce my first novel until I started to creak open the doorway to my middle age. Although it's true that the fundamental ideas for what would become OF STAVES AND SIGMAS have been with me since my college days, I knew that I wasn't experientially equipped in those fledgling years to do them literary justice. In my twenties, and even through my thirties, I don't think that I--or my writing--had attained the maturity necessary for properly exploring and delineating the complexities of this story and its multi-faceted characters. Shelved, then, for a number of years, only when I felt sufficiently tempered by the triumphs and the hard knocks of life did I finally resurrect my earlier draft; and, finding the plot compelling and undiminished by time--and highly adaptable to my far more competent literary machinations--I have spun it into the rather lengthy tome that you can find on this site. Good stories, they say, are timeless.
I grew up reading 1960's Marvel Comics and Famous Monsters of Filmland, watching 1950's science fiction films, Frank Capra movies (I especially love Meet John Doe), pretty much anything from the early Hal Roach studios or the Three Stooges (I'm a long-standing Shemp-o-phile). Bookwise, I've always enjoyed the fiction of Richard Matheson (in all of his various literary, teleplay, and screenwriting pseudonyms) and the scientific and philosophical non-fiction of Isaac Asimov. I have also pretty much read the covers off of all eleven Edgar Rice Burroughs's "Mars" books (I dare say that ERB has truly been one of my greatest influences in choosing to write my own adventure novels). Homer's Odyssey, however, remains my favourite story ever; I find it not only a magnificent work of fiction, but to me it is the metaphoric mother lode for the entire human condition. Last, but never least, much of my general day-to-day silliness can be attributed to my family gene pool (and my being reared in that environment) with a little bit of help from the Three Stooges, the Monty Python fellows, and the brilliant Benny Hill, to name just a few.
Having lived in Europe for a few years in my youth, I was quickly instilled with an unquellable fondness for mediæval cities and ruins, for classical composers, for old mythology and lore, and for diverse cultures in general. And, of course, for British English. Stir all of these ingredients together, add a bachelor's degree in English, and you just might glean what it is that compels and drives my imagination. These concepts, and more, are what I inject into my writing.
